Review & Swatches: MAC Iris Apfel Lipsticks

Colour plus texture for the lips. Stands out on the runway. Simmers on the street! What made M·A·C famous.

This review is for the 4 new Lipsticks releasing with MAC’s upcoming Iris Apfel Collection. This post includes photographs and swatches of the following colors:

Pink Pigeon (matte): Bright cleanest pink (Limited Edition)

Scarlet Ibis (matte): Bright orange-red (Limited Edition)

Party Parrot (matte): Bright red-pink (Limited Edition)

Flamingo (lustre): Light milky bright coral (Limited Edition)

Morange is also included in this collection, but is a permanent color and can be purchased at any time.

Packaging:9/10

These lipsticks come in standard MAC packaging. The tubes are made of plastic and can easily be taken on-the-go.

Quality: 9.8/10

Pink Pigeon is a very cool-toned, blue-based pink. Scarlet Ibis is a warm-toned, orange-leaning red. Party Parrot is a bright, almost-reddish pink.

My amazement with this collection continues. These 3 matte-formula colors are all incredibly opaque and bright. Even though they are matte in formula, they don’t have completely matte finishes and leave a slight sheen to the lips. The formula is soft and does not dry out the lips like so many other matte lipsticks.

Flamingo is a soft, coral-pink. Because it is a lustre lipstick, it is semi-sheer and gives less vibrant color to the lips. It also goes on more unevenly than the matte lipsticks. But the color payoff is still good and the unevenness can be smoothed out with layering and blending.

Ease of Use: 9.75/10

Even though the 3 matte lipsticks are incredibly bright, I found them easier to use than most other matte lipsticks. Because the formula is creamy, there was minimal skipping on the skin. Instead, the color transferred smoothly and effortlessly. Flamingo is much easier to use, since the semi-sheer finish doesn’t require as much precision when applying.

Price: 9/10

These are the same size (3 g) as regular MAC lipsticks and cost $14.50 each.

Oh wow…these lipsticks practically screamed at me with “Buy me now!” hahaha. The colours are so bright and fun and I love every single one of them! But Flamingo really blew me away because it was quite unexpected amongst the other lipsticks that were all matte and quite amplified in terms of colour. Plus, Flamingo is the most day-time appropriate out of all the lipsticks here.

You said Flamingo goes on unevenly- is it quite time-consuming to layer and blend it out? And is it worth the money if it has this problem?

Before the swatches, I was thinking about the brights, but I really like the look of Flamingo now!
The creamy finish of the 3 brights make me think maybe they were meant to be Amplified Cremes (not that that’s a bad thing, I love that finish).